Bronx man sentenced for swindling local woman and other victim

A man who pleaded guilty to scamming a Valley Stream woman and another person in New Hyde Park was sentenced to prison on Aug. 27.

Mario Tolisano, 65, of the Bronx, pleaded guilty on June 25 to third-degree grand larceny. Nassau County District Court Judge Susan Kluewer sentenced him to one to three years in prison.

The scheme started in 2012, when a New Hyde Park woman learned of Tolisano from a work colleague and signed a contract with him, agreeing to pay $3,000 for his legal services, according to the district attorney’s office. In June 2013, Tolisano told her to give him $20,000 so he could pay her real estate taxes. He assured her that the money would go into his escrow account and be used to pay the taxes within six weeks. The woman tried to contact him numerous times to learn if the taxes were paid and to find out what the status of her loan modification was, but didn’t reach him.

The woman learned in January 2014 that the taxes were paid by the company that purchased her mortgage and not by Tolisano. She also discovered that the checks that were supposed to be deposited into his escrow account were deposited in and withdrawn from someone else’s account.

A Valley Stream woman paid Tolisano $2,500 for legal services in September 2013. She received a letter from her bank on March 5, 2014 informing her that he had never contacted the bank to negotiate a loan modification.

The Nassau County Police Department received complaints from the two women, and the Crimes Against Property Squad referred the case to the district attorney’s office for prosecution. Tolisano was arrested on June 23.

“This defendant pretended to be a real estate attorney, but he was in fact a con artist who swindled hardworking Long Island families out of thousands of dollars,” said Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas. “Phony attorneys deprive victims of proper representation, and my office will continue to hold these criminals accountable for their actions.”

Tolisano is represented by Manhattan attorney Dawn Florio.

To find out the status of anyone admitted to the New York State Bar, search the New York State Unified Court System’s online database: http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/attorney/AttorneySearch.